Thursday, August 10, 2017

Giving Rising Demands for Change, Kremlin Said Mulling Four New ‘Social Contracts’

Paul
Goble

Staunton, August 9 – Now that the
Kremlin’s pollster has said that Russians because of fears about the future are
more inclined to say they change for the better than to be acceptant of
stability at the current low standard of living (rosbalt.ru/posts/2017/08/08/1637054.html),
the Kremlin is said to be considering four possible new “social contracts.”

Moscow
commentator Yury Khristenzen says that the stability of Putin’s authoritarian
regime has rested on a social contract between the population and the elites, one
in which the population gives the regime loyalty in exchange for a rising
standard of living, something the regime can no

According to the commentator,
there are indications that the Kremlin is currently discussing four new social
contracts to replace the one that has more or less collapsed.They include:

o“Loyalty
in exchange for security.”This one
would be based on discovering a terrorist threat at home that only the current
regime could address and contain.

o“Repressions
in exchange for disloyalty.” Instead of a positive message, this one would
suggest to the Russian population that the regime will punish the disloyal and
therefore people should demonstrate loyalty to the Kremlin.

o“Loyalty
in exchange for subsistence.”This
accord would clearly seek to convince people that as bad as things are, they
could be worse and that they should back the current regime as a lesser evil
compared to any other.

o“Loyalty
in exchange for political and economic freedoms.” According to Khristenzen,
such an exchange would hardly be welcomed by elites but it might be extremely
popular with the population at large.